John Gill Bible Commentary

To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,.... That is, God will cause his ear to hear the cries of his people, so as to avenge the wrongs done to the fatherless, and them that are oppressed by the man of sin; see Rev 11:18; that the man of the earth may no more oppress: or "terrify" (p), the dear children of God, and faithful witnesses of Christ, as he has done; for by "the man of the earth" is not meant carnal worldly men in general, "the wicked of the earth", as the Targum renders it; who are so called because their original is from the earth, and they dwell in earthly tabernacles, and shall return to the earth again, and are earthly minded men, and have much of this world's things; and are therefore sometimes called the men and children of this world, and who, generally speaking, are oppressors of the saints; and who shall cease to be so in the latter day, when the kingdom shall be given to the saints of the most High; but particularly the man of sin, the Romish antichrist, seems intended, who is the beast that is risen up out of the earth, Rev 13:11; and so the words may be rendered here, "the man out of the earth" (q); whose kingdom and government is an earthly one, and is supported by the kings of the earth, and with earthly power and grandeur, and with earthly views and worldly ends: he has been the great oppressor and terrifier of the poor people of God; but when Christ comes to avenge them on him, he will no more oppress, he will be taken and cast alive into the lake of fire; see Rev 13:10. The words may be rendered according to the accents thus, "to judge the fatherless and the oppressed; he shall not add any more": for there is an "athnach" which makes a proposition "under" "any more": and the sense is, God shall so thoroughly avenge the injuries of the fatherless and the oppressed, that there will be no need to add thereunto or repeat the vengeance, it will be an utter destruction; and then follows another distinct end of causing his ear to hear, namely, "to shake terribly the man of the earth", or "to shake terribly man from off the earth" (r), the man of sin, as before; see Isa 2:19; or, as Jarchi interprets the words, "to beat and break in pieces"; that is, antichrist and his kingdom; so Montanus. (p) "perterrefacere", Piscator; "terrere", Musculus, Vatablus; so Ainsworth. (q) "homines de terra", Pagninus, Montanus. (r) So Jarchi from Aben Ezra. Next: Psalms Chapter 11